The Bucs couldn’t get the sweep on Sunday, as their bats cooled off quickly and the pitching had a strange afternoon (in a mostly bad way).

Jeff Locke started off the game strong, but quickly ran in to some serious control problems. He walked some batters in the early innings, but worked around them with several strikeouts and a few quick innings (plus a pickoff to end the third). All of a sudden, he was halfway through the game and hadn’t allowed a hit. It got messy in the sixth, though, and the Cubs actually managed to push a run across without getting a hit. Locke, still with his no hitter intact, was clearly running out of gas (approaching 100 pitches) and was still having trouble finding the zone – he walked his career high SEVENth batter to set up the run. The Cubs finally notched a base hit, and Jeff left the game before completing six inning.

Unfortunately, the game was tied at that point because the Pirate offense did little against struggling Edwin Jackson. Andrew McCutchen doubled and scored on Garrett Jones‘ single in the fourth for a run, but Jackson held the Bucs in check otherwise. That was pretty disappointing after the bats came alive (somewhat) on Saturday against the great Jeff Samardzija.

Justin Wilson cleaned up Locke’s mess in the sixth with a K, but the Cubs hit him hard in the seventh. Cody Ransom crushed a three run bomb after two singles, and that was that. The Bucs didn’t get anything going off the Cubs’ pen…besides McCutchen’s single in the ninth, which he followed up with a monumentally stupid stolen base attempt (on which he was thrown out).

Not a good game at all for the Bucs, but at least they picked up a road series win. Hopefully a day off and a week back home can get the bats going again.